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The Museum’s Collections document the fate of Holocaust victims, survivors, rescuers, liberators, and others through artifacts, documents, photos, films, books, personal stories, and more. Search below to view digital records and find material that you can access at our library and at the Shapell Center.

Zev H. Holocaust testimony (HVT-397) interviewed by Bernice Harel

Oral History | Fortunoff Collection ID: HVT-397

Videotape testimony of Zev H., who was born in Romania in approximately 1930. He recounts being one of two Jewish families in his town; moving to Baia Mare when he was eight; antisemitic violence by German fascists; Hungarian occupation; anti-Jewish restrictions; forced labor; ghettoization in April 1944; a non-Jewish neighbor bringing them food; deportation to Auschwitz in May; separation from his mother; transfer with his brother and father five weeks later to Mauthausen, then three days later to Ebensee; slave labor in a quarry, then digging tunnels; occasionally seeing his brother and father; his father's hospitalization and deportation (he did not survive); injuring himself; assistance from a prisoner doctor; befriending Soviet POWs; transfer to Wels in March 1945; slave labor clearing bombing rubble; transfer back to Ebensee; liberation by United States troops in May; hospitalization in Traun; involuntarily working as a translator for the Soviets in Wiener Neustadt, interrogating Hungarian and Ukrainian collaborators; returning home via Budapest in September; reunion with his mother and brother; traveling with Beriḥah to Bergen-Belsen displaced persons camp; posing as a member of the Jewish Brigade of the British army; traveling to Lyon; emigration to Palestine via Egypt; joining the Haganah, then the Palmaḥ; living on a kibbutz; serving in the 1948 and 1956 wars; attending university in Jerusalem, then the United States; marriage to an American in 1966; and remaining in the United States. Mr. H. discusses the loss of his childhood; present-day experiences triggering memories of the Holocaust; and his academic career.

Learn about over 1,000 camps and ghettos in Volume I and II of this encyclopedia, which are available as a free PDF download. This reference provides text, photographs, charts, maps, and extensive indexes.